Architecturehttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2212
Wed, 07 Dec 2016 00:18:57 GMT2016-12-07T00:18:57ZDesigning Happiness: Architecture and urban design for joy and well-beinghttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/18656
Designing Happiness: Architecture and urban design for joy and well-being
Habtour, Rebecca
Scientific studies exploring the environmental and experiential elements that help boost human happiness have become a significant and expanding body of work. Some urban designers, architects and planners are looking to apply this knowledge through policy decisions and design, but there is a great deal of room for further study and exploration. This paper looks at definitions of happiness and happiness measurements used in research. The paper goes on to introduce six environmental factors identified in a literature review that have design implications relating to happiness: Nature, Light, Surprise, Access, Identity, and Sociality. Architectural precedents are examined and design strategies are proposed for each factor, which are then applied to a test case site and building in Baltimore, Maryland. It is anticipated that these factors and strategies will be useful to architects, urban designers and planners as they endeavor to design positive user experiences and set city shaping policy.
Fri, 01 Jan 2016 00:00:00 GMThttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/186562016-01-01T00:00:00ZThe Architecture of Waste: Creating New Avenues for Public Engagement with Trashhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/18654
The Architecture of Waste: Creating New Avenues for Public Engagement with Trash
Muller, Jeannine
The relationship between industry, waste, and urbanism is one fraught with problems across the United States and in particular American cities. The interrelated nature of these systems of flows is in critical need of re-evaluation.
This thesis critiques the system of Municipal Solid Waste Management as it currently exists in American cities as a necessary yet undesirable ‘invisible infrastructure’. Industry and waste environments have been pushed to the periphery of urban environments, severing the relationship between the urban environment we inhabit and the one that is required to support the way we live. The flow of garbage from cities of high density to landscapes of waste has created a model of valuing waste as a linear system that separates input from output.
This thesis aims to investigate ways that industry, waste, and urban ecologies can work to reinforce one another. The goal of this thesis is to repair the physical and mental separation of waste and public activity through architecture. This thesis will propose ways to tie urban waste infrastructure and public amenities together through the merging of architecture and landscape to create new avenues for public engagement with waste processes.
Fri, 01 Jan 2016 00:00:00 GMThttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/186542016-01-01T00:00:00ZThe Co-Adapted Community: A New Vision for the Parks at Walter Reedhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/18653
The Co-Adapted Community: A New Vision for the Parks at Walter Reed
Perez-Ayalde, Karina Mercedes
The human-canine bond is one that has existed for thousands of years, yet not until more recently has it gained serious attention in the military medical field. The following thesis will use architecture as a way to explore the physical and psychological rehabilitative relationship between veterans and rescued canines. As soldiers return home from deployment, many struggle with reintegration into civilian life. The therapeutic potential of service dogs, however, has become a widely recognized recovery tool. Meanwhile, there are thousands of non-service dogs suffering extended periods in animal shelters with adverse psychological effects. In a society primarily centered on the typical human experience, the built environment often demonstrates a narrow perspective that lacks sensitivity towards the atypical user. Soldiers and dogs alike perceive and experience the world uniquely, and a further exploration of their distinct relationship can begin to inform how we might develop a new type of shared healing environment or co-adapted community.
Fri, 01 Jan 2016 00:00:00 GMThttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/186532016-01-01T00:00:00ZSchool Development in Urbanizing Areashttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/18652
School Development in Urbanizing Areas
Rai, Pranjali
Good schools are essential for building thriving urban areas. They are important for preparing the future human resource and directly contribute to social and economic development of a place. They not only act as magnets for prospective residents, but also are necessary for retaining current population.
As public infrastructure, schools mirror their neighborhood. “Their location, design and physical condition are important determinants of neighborhood quality, regional growth and change, and quality of life.”2 They impact housing development and utility requirements among many things. Hence, planning for schools along with other infrastructure in an area is essential.
Schools are very challenging to plan, especially in urbanizing areas with changing demographic dynamics, where the development market and housing development can shift drastically a number of times. In such places projecting the future school enrollments is very difficult and in case of large population influx, school development can be unable to catch up with population growth which results in overcrowding.
Typical is the case of Arlington County VA. In the past two decades the County has changed dramatically from a collection of bedroom communities in Washington DC Metro Region to a thriving urban area. Its metro accessible urban corridors are among most desired locations for development in the region. However, converting single family neighborhoods into high density areas has put a lot of pressure on its school facilities and has resulted in overcrowded schools. Its public school enrollment has grown by 19% from 2009 to 2014.3 While the percentage of population under 5 years age has increased in last 10 years, those in the 5-19 age group have decreased4. Hence, there is more pressure on the elementary school facilities than others in the County.
Design-wise, elementary schools, due to their size, can be imagined as a community component. There are a number of strategies that can be used to develop elementary school in urbanizing areas as a part of the neighborhood. Experimenting with space planning and building on partnership and mixed-use opportunities can help produce better designs for new schools in future.
This thesis is an attempt to develop elementary school models for urbanizing areas of Arlington County. The school models will be designed keeping in mind the shifting nature of population and resulting student enrollments in these areas. They will also aim to be efficient and sustainable, and lead to the next generation design for elementary school education. The overall purpose of the project is to address barriers to elementary school development in urbanizing areas through creative design and planning strategies.
To test above mentioned ideas, the Joint-Use School typology of housing +school design has been identified for elementary school development in urbanizing areas in this thesis project. The development is based on the Arlington Public School’s Program guidelines (catering to 600 students). The site selected for this project is Clarendon West (part of Red Top Cab Properties) in Clarendon, Arlington County VA.
Fri, 01 Jan 2016 00:00:00 GMThttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/186522016-01-01T00:00:00Z